Who Made Murillo a Status Symbol: His Dealer? His First Big Collectors?

Carol Vogel piles on the Oscar Murillo is over-hyped story line with a New York Times article on the artist who was put on the map in 2012 by the Rubells in Miami during ArtBasel. According to one commentator, that made the work a status symbol for many buyers (though it doesn’t happen to every artist shown by the Rubells during their annual ArtBasel show.):

“This is a market hungry for the players of the future,” Allan Schwartzman, a Manhattan art adviser, said. “But almost any artist who gets that much attention so early on in his career is destined for failure. The glare is simply too bright for them to evolve.” […]

Considering his naysayers, Mr. Murillo said, “If I were looking from the other side, I would be skeptical, too.”

“I came to this by simply working,” he stressed. “It’s the market, and that has nothing to do with me. I’m just trying to keep things normal. I’ve had to live below my means for so long that I’m keeping it that way.”